Empire Rising
by thebrutishempire
Summary: The people of Panem have always assumed they were all that was left of humanity, but unbeknownst to them, in a land once known as Europe, a chance discovery has meant that the eyes of the powerful Empire are now turning towards Panem...


**A/N: I've always really wanted to know what happened to the rest of the world in the Hunger games, so this is my attempt at explaining it. Please give me a review to tell me what you think. I hope you all enjoy it.**

"Many hundreds of years ago, before the great catastrophe, there existed a country known as America-a nation of great wealth and power. What has become of it, we do not know; we can only assume it either perished in atomic fire or was swallowed up by the sea."-A history of the empire

**Imperial surveillance station 1-Iceland**

**Science officer Ignatius Cole**

"Working hard?" The voice of my friend, Elias, jolts me awake. I lift my head up off the desk and glare at him reproachfully. He laughs and sits down in the chair next to me, taking a big gulp of the coffee from my mug.

"Mmm, yummy" he says, making an annoying smacking sound with his mouth.

"Get your own you lazy sod!" I snap, yanking the cup from his grasp. There's no point though, because he drank it all. "I assume you have a very, _very_ important reason for disturbing me and such a pivotal point in my research?" I ask him, yawning theatrically.

"Actually, yes, I need you to find the location of drone 15. The stupid thing has disappeared on us and I don't quite fancy telling the boss that we lost another one. I'd prefer to keep my head."

"Another one?" I sigh. That's the fifth drone this month that's gone missing this month. They just suddenly go off the radar; we can't track them, they don't show up on any of the scanners. They simply vanish. Frankly it's becoming quite annoying, having to explain to head office that we've lost yet another one of their high tech toys.

"I'll take a look." I say. I bring up the drone control program and run a search for the missing one's last recorded location. When the results come up I have to check again several time because what I see on screen doesn't make sense. It was flying over North America. That shouldn't be possible, we don't do flights over there, because there's nothing there to see, just ruins.

"This can't be right." I say, turning the screen towards Elias, who squints at it incredulously.

"What on earth is it doing all the way over there?" he asks. "There's no way it diverted its course on its own."

He's right, the drones never divert, not unless we tell them to, and this one has gone so far off course it's definitely not a random error. Something must have interfered with it, but that shouldn't be possible. Something isn't quite right here. I have to find what, or who, took control of it, but I'm stumped.

"We have to find out how it got there. Any ideas?" I ask Elias, who is staring at the screen with a furrowed brow.

"No idea. Did it take any pictures? Maybe that'll give us a clue."

"Worth a try." I reply. Every drone is programmed to take a still image of the area below it every 10 minutes. I bring up the 'surveillance data' file, which begins to rapidly cycle through images. It shows pictures of the sea, several shots of a densely forested area, and a mountain range. Nothing out of the ordinary at all. In fact, these images confirm our suspicions that there's nothing left in America at all. It's entirely been retaken by nature. I sigh and reach to turn the screen off. It's been a long day and I'm hungry and exhausted.

"Ahh, come on, I can't be bothered with this any more, let's go to the canteen" I say to Elias, who nods in agreement and heads towards the door.

Just as I'm about to press the off switch, the screen suddenly changes, flashing to a picture of a sprawling city, surrounded by high mountains with great skyscrapers and domed buildings, the light of the midday sun reflecting off them, giving the city an ethereal quality. What the hell? i still can't quite comprehend what I'm seeing.

I take off my glasses and squint at the picture, thinking it might be some sort of mirage, or fault in the camera. But it's not, because I know that's a city. In America. How can this be possible? I feel like I might actually die from excitement, this is incredible! Actual proof that we're not the ones ones still alive! After a few minutes of silent celebration and imagining the awards I'll get for this, I radio to the base commander.

"Sir, you need to come down here right away. I've found something you're really going to like."


End file.
